Fraser criticises Bush in controversial speech

Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser attacked the Bush administration's record on human rights in an address marking his new role as a professor at the University of Melbourne's Law School.

Transcript

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TONY JONES: Well back to Australian politics and as we've seen, Paul Keating was out stirring the possum today and another ex-prime minister has also made a controversial speech during the election campaign.

Former Liberal PM Malcolm Fraser attacked the Howard Government's record on human rights tonight in an address marking his new role as a professor at Melbourne University's law school.

Helen Brown reports.

HELEN BROWN: Former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was scathing about the policies of Australia's most important ally when he spoke at Melbourne University this evening. He says the United States, though once a champion of human rights and international law, has become captive to those with neo-conservative views.

MALCOLM FRASER, FORMER PRIME MINISTER: At their core is a simple belief that the century, or if you like, even the world, belongs to the United States.

HELEN BROWN: Mr Fraser used his address to outline concern about how the neo-conservatives in the Bush administration were destroying 50 years of progressive thinking.

He says since World War II the United States had been a driving force behind the creation of international laws to protect human rights. But since the calamity of September 11, the Bush administration has grabbed its chance to impose a new set of principles.

MALCOLM FRASER: It's seen the erosion of individual human rights and the purposeful avoidance of due process all in the name of national security.

HELEN BROWN: Malcolm Fraser says fighting the war on terrorism became an excuse to ignore international law and create rules that suited the United States' own agenda. Professor Fraser says the war in Iraq shows how the Bush presidency tries to dominate rather than conciliate.

MALCOLM FRASER: It represents the worst fears of smaller nations in the developing world about the unrestrained use of American power. The Iraqi Government is seen as a puppet of the United States, despite the election held last year.

HELEN BROWN: And then Professor Fraser turned his attention to the Australian Government.

MALCOLM FRASER: In the name of national security in the last seven years, there's been increasing disregard for the rule of law.

HELEN BROWN: Malcolm Fraser talked about David Hicks, children in detention centres and the treatment of asylum seekers as just some examples of how due process is being shoved aside. He doesn't hold out hope the Labor Party will make a change.

MALCOLM FRASER: If we allow arbitrary injudicious acts of government to destroy the life of one person don't we understand that creates a virus that spreads throughout the body politic?

ROBERT MANNE, POLITICAL SCIENCE, LA TROBE UNIVERSITY: It was absolutely clear and would be clear to the whole audience not only implicitly but also explicitly in many points that it was a condemnation of the Howard Government's attitude towards the war on terror, the invasion of Iraq and the erosion of civil liberties.

HELEN BROWN: Professor Fraser made several suggestions for turning things around. Top of these was drawing up a national bill of rights to keep governments in check.